Moments
by periferal
Summary: Earth/Human/Highschool AU. Multiple ships. Crossposted from AO3. Various semi-connected ficlets, mostly focusing on Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie.
1. 15

Frustrating people assume their freshman year that Ren and Nora are dating. There is even the really uncomfortable moment when the teacher monitoring first period study hall asks Ren if "he's seen his girlfriend around," since today is the second time that week Nora is out of school.

We're not dating," Ren says, and decides against telling where Nora is. She's sick with a minor cold that made her voice scratchy over the phone when she called him. He had thought (it turns out wrongly) that at least a teacher, an adult, wouldn't make the same gross assumptions as another student.


	2. 6

There are days in first grade where Ren doesn't really want to talk so Nora sits next to him at recess while he's reading and rambles on about the stories she's made up about the trees on the playground. There aren't that many old ones, just one or two sturdy old (what's she's fairly sure are) oak trees plus a lot of pines, and it's fun to pretend that there are fairies living inside them.

Ren reads a lot more advanced books than Nora does, but Nora's already on long division even though she's only in first grade, like Ren, so that makes it fair. Ren can already read Harry Potter and he likes to tell her about the parts he's read when he wants to talk. He says that Nora is a Hufflepuff, but neither of them are old enough to go to Hogwarts yet, anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

He whispers to her that really he thinks he's a Ravenclaw, but a lot of the Ravenclaws in the books are sort of mean, like some of the other kids are to him and Nora. She grins and picks up a stick from the ground near the sand pits on the playground and says that she'll whack anyone who's mean to him. Then the teacher sees her with the stick and shouts, and she drops it and runs off giggling to hide in the snake rocks until recess is over.


	3. 7

In second grade Nora's reading gets better and she starts to read more, Harry Potter specifically because Ren likes to tell her about it, even though he's read all seven books so many times that he can basically recite them to her. She likes them, but she tells Ren that she honestly likes them better when he's telling them to her, because he tells stories really, really well.

He's surprised but it also makes him grin, and she pokes him on the nose.

Ren still has days where he doesn't want to talk, but that's okay because the teacher is cool and decides this is a good opportunity to teach the class sign language, though she says it's not actually related. The other kids in the class want to whisper about Ren, because he's quiet and spends most of his time small and in corners but Nora shouts a lot and eventually they stop bothering him, and the two of them are left alone.

That isn't so bad, they're best friends. Ren isn't really afraid that Nora will stop talking to him, because even though she's better at talking to people than he is he always goes and sits with him by the sand pits for recess, even when she's invited to play games with the other second graders.


	4. 11

As Nora will unashamedly admit to, she cries when she doesn't get her Hogwarts letter on her 11th birthday. Ren has already has his but Nora has explained away him not getting a letter as Hogwarts wanting to send both of them a letter at the same time, because they're best friends. Ren doesn't say anything even though he knows nothing will happen, he doesn't believe in things as hard as Nora does.

They're having a sleepover so Nora convinces Ren to stay up late, waiting until midnight because they have to be wizards, they have to be.  
Obviously, they aren't, magic isn't real and Ren pets Nora's hair as she cries, curled up the corner of his room closest to the closet. Then she laughs and Ren looks at her, startled. "I just realized this is like the fairies," she says, and Ren nods.

(/)

When they were nine, during summer vacation, Nora made a fairy house in her backyard by making a little fort out of sticks and leaning it against a tree. The next morning there were flowers in the house and her dad told her that this was because the fairies had stayed in the house during the night and the flowers were a thank you gift.

Later that day, she went out to water the flowers, and discovered to her horror that they were already wilting. Digging around in the fairy house she discovered that they were cut flowers with the cut off ends buried under a thin layer of dirt, not flowers grown magically overnight. Nora knew fairies would never do that, one of the biggest rules for fairies was never cut flowers because that was killing them.

So she ran to her papa and asked if he and dad had put the flowers there, not the fairies.

"Yeah," her papa said.

"Oh," Nora said. "Are there really fairies?" she asked, because even though she believed in stuff like magic and fairies she wasn't stupid either.

"I don't know," papa said.

(/)

She told Ren about this at their next playdate and he told her that he didn't believe in fairies, not really, he just pretended with Nora because it was fun.

Now, three years later with Harry Potter Ren admits again that he doesn't believe in magic, and never really has. And Nora nods, and says, "Doesn't make the book stupid."

"Nope." Ren says. He pokes Nora on the nose, and she giggles.


	5. Awkward Sweater

Ren goes by he most of the time because it's easier. It's not right but it works for now, like a sweater that's a bit too small, but they've stopped growing anyway and the color's nice. Nora mixes up random pronouns, or just says you or calls them by their name. Ren.

He is easier because he, unlike they, doesn't get corrected as a grammatical error by well meaning teachers. He gives ideas that they almost match, if you ignore the pink in their hair and the occasional skirt.

It makes them feel better, less like they're wearing somebody else's skin. They start correcting people who use the wrong pronouns and the wrong words (they're not a boy, not ever, not a boy, at least not that) in senior year because being correct is important, and they want to be out to whatever college they end up going to. Because this is who they are and that's important.


	6. Her Skirts

Nora is a girl, born as one and ever one, there's no real confusion about it for her. Not that she doesn't get how weird it'd be to be in the wrong body but she isn't, and she knows how lucky that makes her. After all, most of those skirts Ren wears were hers once, at least until they start buying their own stuff.

She knows Ren isn't sure yet so she mostly avoids pronouns and uses their name over, and over, which she doesn't mind because Ren is a cool name.

When Ren starts correcting people, Nora dances gleefully around the computer lab, because maybe the teachers will stop being idiots about the pronouns thing. Maybe not immediately, because a lot of them are really old but eventually, hopefully, it will happen.


	7. Kisses

Nora had very huffily dragged Ren over to Blake by the arm, declaring that the two of them were idiots who needed to just figure things out, for Oum's sake.

After some very suggestive hand gestures she had then stomped off, leaving Ren and Blake to stare at each other, Ren still clutching their book protectively to their chest.

Blake's the one to initiate the kiss, holding Ren's hand. And it sucks- well, not so much for a first kiss, as first kisses go but like most first kisses there are too many teeth and too much spit.

They pull away at around the same time after only a few seconds. They're both grinning, even though it was terrible.

They're (shockingly) in the library, in a corner where almost no one goes unless they're on an assignment on whatever the books in this section are actually on (probably something like mapmaking or something equally dull). They're sitting against a bare patch of wall. Blake has their shoes off.

"Do- do you want to try that again?" Ren eventually asks, nearly stuttering with how incredibly strange verbalizing that sounds to them. Blake nods, and wipes their mouth with the back of their hand.

"Less spit please, though," they say, and Ren nods. Again Blake initiates, and this time things are a bit better- less wet sloppy, at least, and still closed mouthed, with not as many teeth. It lasts a bit longer, both of them breathing through their noses, and then Ren pulls away.

"Um," they say. Ren swallows nervously, worrying at the corner of their bottom lip. Then they kiss Blake again, and this time they bring the hand that isn't holding their hand to rest on the space between Blake's shoulder blade.

This kiss lasts even longer, and it's open mouthed, and messier than the second kiss but in a way that's somehow less awkward than the first kiss. They're gripping each other a bit oddly by the end, still holding hands tightly.

It takes longer for them to stop kissing this time, this time it's because they've both actually run out of air, and Ren is smiling almost the widest Blake has ever seen, and they're grinning too. "So that was really nice," they say, and Ren nods.

Blake leans their head against Ren's shoulder, the two of them having rearranged themselves so they're sitting next to each other holding hands, again. "Do you want to do anymore, um, more?" Ren asks, sounding almost worried.

"Not really," Blake says, "kissing's good for now."

The relieved sound Ren makes is almost a laugh. "Oh, good," they say. "That was really nice."

"Yeah," Blake says. They tighten their grip on Ren's hand.


	8. Unwanted Attention

"For fuck's sake Blake you're dating a fuckin' Asian?" Adam says.

Of course today's the day he comes back to visit the school. "Yes, fuck off," Blake says, trying to push past him. He's standing in the doorway of the school, blocking their way, and he grabs them by the arm.

"You're not going anywhere," he says, trapping them in the little foyer space in the entrance to the school, "'Till you explain why you dumped me just to date the Valkyrie kid's freaky friend."

They shove him off, trying again to push through him. "I don't need to justify my actions to you!" They are nearly growling at this point.

It's relatively late, so there are very few people, but at this point they just have to hold him back long enough that the noise catches the attention of a teacher. Or, Ren comes along like he'd promised.

Finally, they manage to dig their nails into his arm, scratching him, and he jerks his arm back. "I said, fuck off," they say, shifting their stance to a more balanced one- his only advantage so far is that he had an element of surprise. They've been able to take him before, even though he's bigger than them.

"I'm just worried about you Blake," he says, switching tones from hostile to pleading. "I want you to be safe, even if we're not seeing each other anymore."

They scoff at him, "I'm safer with them than I ever was with you, asshole," they say, holding their hands loosely at their sides now, watching him.

"Come on, you know I just don't want you hurt," he says, coming closer to them again. "I'm worried about you, now that I can't protect you."

Blake punches him in the gut, and he doubles over, howling. "You fucking bitch!" he says, rushing at them. They dodge out of the way, pushing their way outside the school, to give themselves more space.

He swings at them once he's straightened, and they duck, shoving him backwards, towards the school again. Now he's the one cornered, and he glares at them. "This isn't over," he says. They let him get past them, before reentering the building.

Ren is in the in between space. "Are you alright?" they ask, rushing over to Blake.

Blake shrugs, "I'm okay, just- shows how useful the fucking security thing is, huh?"

Their SO shrugs, "I guess. Nora will break his legs for you, like actually."

"I know." They grab Ren's hand, and grin at them. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah."


	9. 17

Ren doesn't really speak so much when Nora isn't there. Not that Nora isn't at school it's just this year they're not in as many of the same classes, anymore. And so Ren doesn't talk as much, because it's harder, when Nora isn't there to act as a filter.

They still talk in class, sometimes, though usually they just take notes and doodle stick figures in the margins, staring intently at whoever the teacher is.

During the required study halls, they spend their time reading or doing homework, or doing reading homework, usually in corners or under a table in the computer lab on their laptop.

Blake is about as talkative. They're friends with Yang but the two of them don't speak as much as Yang talks to them and Blake fiddles with their phone.

It's a Friday when, seeking a place to hide from people in general, Ren finds Blake sitting on the windowsill of the back staircase, tapping away on a laptop, butterfly wing headphones an obvious fuck off. They're curled up in one part of the windowsill, leaving enough for another person, probably unintentionally.

Ren drops their backpack by on the floor next to the windowsill, and Blake looks up, and shrugs. They go back to whatever they're doing on the laptop, and Ren pulls out their book to start their reading.

This is nice.


	10. 13

Ren and Nora are sitting on Nora's bed watching some animated thing on her laptop. Ren has ended up in the corner of the bed, shoved between the wall and Nora, who has basically decided to flop entirely over Ren.

"Hey, Ren?" Nora asks. "Do you have a crush on me?"

She asks it all of a sudden and Ren pauses the video and looks at her. "No," he says, "I don't. Do you?"

Nora shakes her head. "No, I don't," she says, "but some kids at school won't shut up about it, and I can't just chase them around with sticks, anymore, to get them to shut up. That stopped being okay when I was ten."

"Oh," Ren says. "Well they're dumb. You promise you don't have a crush on me?" he asks, again, still sort of worried.

"Yeah," Nora says. "You don't have boobs, anyway."

Ren starts giggling hysterically, "What the hell, man?"

Nora shrugs. "I mean, it's _true_."

Ren tightens his grip on Nora. "You're ridiculous."

"Yup."


End file.
